Giants Stuff...

[Cotton]

Church remembers Giants' passing game

November, 23, 2013

By Calvin Watkins | ESPNDallas.com


IRVING, Texas -- While the Dallas Cowboys won the first meeting with the New York Giantsin the season opener, Cowboys safety Barry Church is proud that his team forced six turnovers that day.

What he isn't proud of is that the Giants ran up 478 total offensive yards, had two receivers, Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, each gain over 100 receiving yards and allowed quarterback Eli Manning to throw for 450 yards.

In the rematch on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, Church said to win Round 2, holding down the passing game is vital.

"We definitely weren't OK," Church said. "The six turnovers won the game for us, but we can't give up 450 yards and expect to win. We definitely got to bring that number down a lot. If the turnovers come, that’s a bonus but as a defense we got to keep the yards to a minimum."

The defense gets a boost by the return of three defensive players in cornerback Morris Claiborne, who missed the past two games with a hamstring injury, defensive tackle Jason Hatcher, out the last game with a stinger and rookie safety J.J. Wilcox, out the past three games with a bruised knee.

Church will be paired with not only Wilcox on Sunday, but with another rookie in Jeff Heath, who has struggled in the deep passing game.

"They are both very similar players," Church said of Wilcox and Heath. "Both very smart as far as learning the calls and that kinda stuff. They have it both down pretty much."

Will the Cowboys, despite winning the first meeting, have everything in order against a Giants offense that's helped produce a four-game win streak?

"We got a good game plan for them," Church said. "We're going to let our corners play and choke them out and get down in their face and hopefully we’ll have a better outcome than we did in the first week when they put 450 on us."

 

[Plan9Misfit]

"We got a good game plan for them," Church said. "We're going to let our corners play and choke them out and get down in their face and hopefully we’ll have a better outcome than we did in the first week when they put 450 on us."

Are we gunning for 600, then? Because our defense is worse now than it was then.

 

[L.T. Fan]

My mantra now is beat the Giants and avoid the December slide.

 

[boozeman]

Giants talk big while Cowboys sound smaller


By Tom Orsborn

November 24, 2013

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Super Bowl will be played here in February.

But for the Giants, The Big Game begins this afternoon against the Cowboys.

“I feel like it's going to determine the outcome of the season,” safety Antrel Rolle said last week. “We can't walk away with a loss.”

Said defensive end Justin Tuck: “If we lose, it's like them putting dirt on us. ... We're looking at it as a must-win.”

The Cowboys? Well, it's been difficult to gauge their mood.

There are players such as Orlando Scandrick, who at one point all but said it was a must-win game but then almost in the same breath went in a different direction.

“I won't be packing my bags and doing an exit interview on Monday if we lose,” he said.

But others seemed to grasp that a loss could not only sink the season but eventually lead to widespread change at Valley Ranch.

“People always say you got to have a tunnel vision with your approach,” tight end Jason Witten said. “I agree with that 100 percent. But there is a big picture. You have to understand that and where you are at. There is a mentality that says we have to play our best football and here is what it comes down to. These next six games are going to determine a lot of stuff.”

At 5-5, the Cowboys trail the idle, NFC East-leading Eagles by a half-game. The Giants are third at 4-6 after winning four in a row after an 0-6 start.

A loss won't officially knock either team out of the race, but it's hard to imagine the loser regaining momentum. Coming up short at MetLife Stadium would leave the Cowboys with a two-game losing streak and losses in three of their last four games.

So given what's at stake, why isn't Dallas approaching this game with the same sense of urgency as New York?

The answer is simple: It's just not Jason Garrett's way.

“I don't know that there's a correlation between what you say during the week and your intensity during the game,” the coach said.

Maybe he's right. But the Giants seem inspired by Jason Pierre-Paul's fiery words after last week's 27-13 win over Green Bay.

Emboldened by his game-clinching interception return for a touchdown, Pierre-Paul said the Giants were going to “put it on” the Cowboys and that there would be “a lot of blood spilled out there.”

Valley Ranch shrugged at those comments, responding with what could be termed the mundane mutterings of the mediocre.

“This stuff is a process,” said Dez Bryant, echoing something he's often heard from Garrett.

So what if process loses to passion at the Meadowlands? If the Giants really do play this game as if it was the Super Bowl, and the Cowboys just go through the motions like they did in the second half of the blowout loss two weeks ago in New Orleans? And what if they go on to miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season?

Doesn't Jerry Jones forget about that vote of confidence he gave Garrett last week? Remember, Jones fired Wade Phillips midway through the disastrous 2010 season after swearing he would never can a coach in the midst of a season.

Garrett understands he's likely on the hot seat no matter what Jones said, but he stayed in character last week and continued to “focus on the task at hand.” The Giants, meanwhile, took a different approach.

“It's like a Super Bowl to us,” Pierre-Paul said. “We need it badly, and we got to get it.”

 

[Texas Ace]

So the Cowboys aren't as motivated as their opponent in a must win game?

Shocking.

 

[jsmith6919]

“This stuff is a process,” said Dez Bryant, echoing something he's often heard from Garrett.

well they have fully extinguished any fire this team had now with the taming of Dez